In fiscal 2013-2014, the SII Group again reported higher revenue from international operations. What can you say about your results and how do you envision the coming years?

J.P Chevée: The Group’s revenue from international operations was up 22 percent last year. For the second consecutive year, the entire increase was organically generated.

This improvement is attributable to our growth model. We start off by providing support to our customers in countries where our services help make them more productive, then develop a local business by diversifying those services. This is how we have expanded our operations in some ten countries over the past eight years.

Occasionally, depending on the size and maturity of the market in which we seek to invest, we opt for growth through acquisition. This is how we developed our business in Spain and Germany, for example.

Thus, the Group’s growth outside France is driven by the expansion of our own customers’ operations, growth of the sectors concerned and acquisitions. Under these favorable circumstances our business is expected to continue improving in the near future.

Revenue will increase even faster in fiscal 2014-2015 as a result of the April 2014 purchase of Rücker Aerospace in Germany.

Can you tell us something about the business of the Group’s subsidiaries?

J.P Chevée: The latest news about the Group international operations concerned its purchase of Rücker Aerospace, which confirmed its intention of expanding in both the aerospace sector and the German market. By providing a boost to one of its fastest-growing subsidiaries, the Group is becoming a very significant and diversified player in the Germany aerospace sector.

We also continue to expand operations in the European Union’s emerging markets, such as in Poland and Romania, as well as in those outside the EU, such as India and Chile.

The development of our subsidiaries varies depending on their age and on the size, maturity and growth of the market in which they operate. At one extreme we have our Polish subsidiary, which was the first to open in 2006 and which now employs more than 1,500 persons in a nationwide network of eight branch offices. At the other end of the spectrum is our most recently opened Indian business, formed in 2013 in Bangalore.

What are the primary growth areas of the Group’s foreign operations?

J.P Chevée: Providing support to our clients remains our principal activity. An increasingly significant portion of our business consists of work for customers who use our services in several countries.

We also seek to develop our services in given sectors while paying particular attention to the specific characteristics of each country. It’s difficult for us to market our aerospace expertise in Chile, for instance, but it is a major business in Canada, where we recently started doing business.

It should also be noted that, over the past eight years, 80 percent of our international operations’ growth has occurred organically and this is expected to continue in the future.